Pharmaceutical firms have agreed to cut by half the prices of at least 14 essential medicines as soon as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signs an executive order on the implementation of the cheaper medicine law, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.

The prices of the remaining essential drugs will be subjected to a maximum drug retail price (MDRP), Duque said.

"We take note of the timely submission of the pharmaceutical companies and their commitment to lower medicines prices of their common products by at least 50 percent," Duque said.

The 50-percent price cut will cover "14 to 15" essential medicines, he said.

Medicines that will be subject to MDRP and include those for hypertension and diabetes patients as well as antibiotics and antibacterials, said Robert So, program manager of the DoH pharmaceutical management unit.

Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) President Oscar Aragon said most of PHAP's member companies preferred a voluntary price reduction instead of mandatory cuts under an EO.

"The executive order is a last resort item that will have to be installed if all else fails such that competition is not healthy but right now, we have a very lively industry with a lot of emerging players," Aragon said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will go ahead with a revised executive order setting a price ceiling for at least six essential medicines—including the anti-hypertensive drug amlodipine—effective August 15, a Palace official said.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Monday the EO had to be modified because drug companies had agreed to voluntarily reduce the prices of at least 14 essential medicines.

The Department of Health (DoH) recommended a 50-percent price cut for 21 essential medicines, consistent with the Cheaper Medicines Law. Arroyo had given drug firms until last Saturday to comply.

Duque said companies producing "six to seven" drugs insisted that they could not comply with the 50-percent cut because doing so would purportedly "eat so much into their (profit) margins."

But Duque said he would like to verify those claims. "I, for one, will not readily accept that. I will have to look into their financial statements," he told a media briefing in Malacañang.

The chairman of the Senate committee on trade has sought the assistance of the United States government in its investigation into the alleged bribe attempt by drug manufacturer Pfizer Philippines to stop the imposition of the cheaper medicines law in the country.

As the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) prepares to implement a memorandum barring "spam" text messages, a group of mobile value added service (VAS) providers are seeking further investigation into the alleged "vanishing load."

Between numerous complaints of mobile phone customers and a homegrown P5 billion sunshine industry, what's a regulator to do? After mere slaps on the wrist to erring industry players, the National Telecommunications Commission has issued a blanket ban on the controversial but easily misunderstood service.

A 51-year-old Norwegian national died early Monday after he was stabbed by one of four persons who claimed they were taken hostage by the foreigner inside the latter's house in Consolacion town, 13 kilometers north of Cebu City.

BOPK's choice for the south district congressional seat has been narrowed down to two—Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and his sister Minnie, since the mayor is also interested in fielding his wife Margot as a candidate for councilor.

But Osmeña may be the most likely candidate of Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) for the south district's congressional seat, after election officers said Minnie's candidacy can face several hitches.

In a phone interview yesterday, Minnie declined from making any statement, but she confirmed she still has dual citizenship, which is one of the disqualifications enumerated in section 40 of the Local Government Code.

Osmeña is qualified to run for congressman, after the Comelec Cebu City's election registration board for the south district approved yesterday the transfer of his voters' registration records from the north district to the south, as well as Margot's and their son Miguel's records.

Lawyer Edwin Cadungog, election officer for the south district, said though, that Minnie still has until Oct. 31 to transfer her registration records.

He said Minnie will have to register as a voter in the south, and should have at least one year of residency in the district prior to the election, so she will qualify to run there.

In separate interviews yesterday, Cadungog and Provincial Election Supervisor Lionel Castillano said that under the law, anyone with dual citizenship is disqualified to run for Congress, mayor, vice mayor or councilor.

But if the foreign citizenship is renounced, Minnie will be able to run, but only for mayor, vice mayor or councilor, and not Congress, said Castillano, also the Comelec regional attorney.

Barely six more months prior to the 30th anniversary of the Sinulog Festival and still, there is no resolution yet from the Commission on Audit to have the activity exempted from a ban on financial donations.

Criminal charges are being readied against a couple following the rescue of four women, three of them minors, allegedly being used in cyber pornography during a raid by the National Bureau of Investigation in Lapu-Lapu City last Saturday.

The government is checking reports that 10 overseas Filipino workers were among the 16 people killed when a helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff at southern Afghanistan's largest NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) base Sunday, Vice President Noli de Castro said.

The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) defended the moves taken by Sulu Vice Governor Lady Ann Sahidulla in working for the release of the three volunteers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), saying she was authorized by the government to talk to the Abu Sayyaf.

Not even a renewed "war" against illegal drug syndicates after gangsters abducted and raped a young daughter of a counter-narcotics agent, could justify the restoration of the death penalty, a Catholic bishop said on Monday.

The House of Representatives will study the re-imposition of the death penalty against illegal drug traffickers, Speaker Prospero Nograles said on Monday, in the wake of reports that an anti-narcotics agent's daughter was kidnapped and raped.

Police on Monday held a teenager for questioning about the supposed abduction and rape of a 13-year-old daughter of a drug enforcement agent here on Saturday. But police officials said the boy told investigators that there was no truth to reports that the girl was abducted and raped allegedly by members of a drug syndicate under government surveillance.

The House of Representatives is being asked to investigate the abduction and torture of Filipino-American Melissa Roxas and two community health workers in Tarlac two months ago allegedly by members of the military.

Saying they were tired of hearing more "lies" and "illusions" that the country has been better under her nine years in office, eight militant partylist representatives announced that they would not attend President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's State of the Nation Address (Sona) next week.

Village watchmen and disaster officials have been provided with bicycles equipped with megaphones, transistor radios and other emergency gadgets to mobilize the evacuation of communities near the slopes of the Mayon volcano in case of an eruption.

The death toll due to tropical storm "Isang" (international codename: Molave), which brought heavy rains to Luzon late last week, has risen to five while one person remains missing, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said on Monday.

For the first time since taking office, United States President Barack Obama's job approval rating has dropped below the 60-percent threshold as Americans expressed doubts about his handling of the economy, the deficit, and health care, a new opinion poll showed Monday.

The Philippine Olympic Committee will gather the 25 national sports associations (NSAs) bound for the Southeast Asian Games in a crucial meeting today to discuss its battle plan for the biennial meet in Laos and the strained relationship with the Philippine Sports Commission.

A Saudi Arabian man married a Filipino woman not for love, nor for money but for her kidney, officials said Monday. The man's transplant was blocked by authorities, but the case shows the difficulty the Philippines faces in fighting rampant trade in organs fueled by wealthy-but-ailing foreigners buying kidneys from impoverished Filipinos.

A human rights group says it has documented nearly 200 poor kidney donors recruited by organ-trafficking syndicates in a single province in the last few years.

Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the Saudi man applied for a transplant at a government-run hospital, listing his wife as his voluntary donor. But hospital officials became suspicious when they learned the couple had married only recently and that the husband spoke no English or Tagalog, while the Filipino wife spoke no Arabic.

"Clearly, it was not a donation," Cabral told a news conference Monday. "It was actually organ sale."

The Saudi man's transplant application was rejected two months ago, though neither he nor his wife faced any charges. Neither would say how much the woman was promised in exchange for her kidney, Cabral said.

Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said the transplant would have been allowed had the marriage been authentic and if there was no commercial transaction involved.

The Philippines was named the No. 5 hotspot for organ trafficking by the World Health Organization in 2005. China was No. 1. The trade mostly involves kidneys, since most people can live with only one.

Amihan Abueva, regional coordinator of the private Asia Against Child Trafficking, said since last year her group has located at least 195 kidney donors from poor communities in Quezon province, southeast of Manila, who were recruited by syndicates. One of the donors was a 17-year-old male who received P95,000 ($1,980).

At least two of the donors — who were paid less than promised — have filed cases against the organ traffickers, Abueva said. The law allows cases to be filed up 10 years after the crime was committed, and up to 20 years if it is large-scale trafficking, she added.

In 2007, out of 1,046 kidney transplants performed in the country, 81 percent were from living, non-related donors and 51 percent of the recipients were foreigners, said the doctors' group Philippine Society of Nephrology. It wasn't clear that all of those transplants involved an organ sale, but the statistics raised suspicions.

The government has been trying to curb the trade. It recently adopted strict rules restricting foreigners from receiving organ transplants from Filipino donors. The new rules added to a 2003 law that already prohibited organ sales, which are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

However, the rules make an exception for family members or anyone with emotional and social ties to the recipient — and Cabral said the case of the Saudi man shows how far people will go to get around the law.

Cabral had likened the sale of kidneys to prostitution, and called for tougher action against brokers and doctors who engage in the transplant of kidneys and other organs.

She had appealed to those thinking of selling their organs not to do it, saying they pay a steep price for a P100,000 to P150,000 payment that will run out in two months.

In contrast, she said the brokers and doctors engaged in the racket earn millions from each "transaction."

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said that rains would continue to prevail over most parts of the country in the next two to three days because of a shallow low pressure area off Northern Samar.

For two-and-a-half hours on Wednesday morning, Filipinos will witness a partial solar eclipse that will occur in most of eastern Asia, Indonesia and the Pacific Ocean. While they may not get to observe a total solar eclipse like in other areas in Asia, people in the Philippines will get a chance to watch the partial eclipse between 8:26 a.m. and 11:10 a.m.